You can't even lead the horse to water, let alone make her drink

Cody is the horse you can almost always lead to water, and usually make him drink, and look at drinking as an adventure! Cordelia is the horse that snorts diffidently at you, flicks her tail, and turns away. There will be no drinking. Fie on the river. Who likes water, anyway? She has an opinion on everything--one that is immediate and then immovable. "Would you like some milk, baby?" "NO! All done milk!" "Time for fruit: apples or pears?" "NO! Pineapple! Have some!" "Would you like some crackers or cheese?" "Crackers!" And then, when I reach for the graham crackers, "No! Animal crackers! In there! Cab-net. That one! Please!"

I think it's good we realize this trait, though as Uncle Walter said this weekend, "That's the one'll give you gray hair." He's right.

We met up with Kim and the kids at the playground today. At one point we were all on the swings, and she apparently was not satisfied with my pushing. She said, "Push you! Please push you. Higher!" I obliged, but she shook her head violently and said, "No! Kim push you!" She would have none of me--only Kim. Which was adorable. Later, and eventually less adorably, she rode the slide approximately 700 times. Then she got the cool idea of getting handfuls of rocks to throw on it, to see them slide, too. If it were just us, it might be okay, but you can't really let your kid do that with others around. So I said, "Cordelia, no throwing rocks." She replied. "Rocks. Throw them. Slide down rocks! Fast! Keep going." I said, "No, you can't keep going. No throwing rocks." She arched her eyebrow and said--I kid you not--"Why?" And not curiously. Defiantly.

I'm in for it.